Colds and Kisses
by LadyNightRunner
Summary: Dark Magician crashlands in a lake, the loyal Celtic Guardian hauls him out. Come morning, the mage has a cold. A bit of bribery turns into fluff. DMxCD


"Hey! Celty! I need a favor!" Celtic Guardian groaned. When the Dark Magician needed a favor there was _always_ a catch.

"What?"

"I need you to test a new spell with me."

"_With _you? That's a new one. Usually it's being tested _on_ me." The purple haired mage grinned and shook his head.

"This one's a transport spell, kinda like a flying carpet, without the carpet. I've gotta come too, or it won't work."

"Am I going to end up with any part of my body misplaced, or will I be sore and achy for a week, like last time Dark? Please say no." Three weeks ago, one of Dark Magician's spells had gone wrong, and the Celtic Guardian had walked around with his feet and hands switched until the mage could find a counter spell.

"Of course not. Come on, let's get started."

"But I didn't say yes!" The elf protested as his friend grabbed his wrist and dragged him away.

/One hour later/ "See, this isn't so bad, now is it?"

"I have to hand it to you Dark, this is neat." Currently, they were flying over the central forest. Everything had a slightly ethereal air to it, since everything below them was silver and white with snow. Celtic Guardian noted a rather large flock of geese coming their way, and tapped his taller friend on the shoulder.

"Huh? What?" Dark said.

"Dark! The geese!" the elf cried. The mage finally saw the birds and panicked. Celtic heard an odd noise, sort of a wet snapping sound, which was quite disturbing. Then, the surface beneath his feet no longer existed and he was falling. _Life is strange this way. _he thought, watching the trees come closer. He turned his head and saw the Dark Magician falling about 30 feet from him. He was about to say something when he made contact with a tree. Dark fell out of his sight. The first tree didn't even slow him down. Celtic slammed through it without a change in speed. The second slowed him a little, mainly because it was a thorn tree and snagged his clothes. When he hit the third tree, his legs and right arm caught in the branches and he came to a painfully abrupt halt. For a moment, the elf just hung there, assessing the damage and trying to figure out how he was going to get down. Then, he heard a startled yell, and a sort of cracking splat noise. Without even taking a moment to consider how far it might be to the ground, Celtic detangled his limbs and fell again, a distance of about 15 feet, to the ground. He knew who had yelled, and if the noise had been an indicator, the mage had hit a lake. There was only one problem with this. Dark couldn't swim…

Celtic Guardian picked himself up, wincing as he used painfully bruised muscles. Once he was sure that he could walk, he took off in the direction the sound had come from. Sure enough, he came to the shore of a medium-sized lake. The Dark Magician's staff lay in the snow on the far bank, and the mage himself was floundering in the water. Celtic began pulling his armor off as fast as he could. When he was armorless, he took a running start and leapt into the water. It wasn't quite as cold as he'd first feared, but it was chilly enough to tell him that he'd better be quick, or he'd drown right along with Dark. With strong, sure strokes he swam out to his friend. As could be expected, the purple-haired male latched onto the Guardian as soon as he was close enough for contact. Thankful he had trained to deal with something like this, the elf turned and swam back to the shore. He staggered out of the water and dumped his load of soggy mage in the snow, then headed off to collect the staff. When he returned, he found Dark curled in a ball underneath the cloak he'd shed. "Are you really that cold?" he asked.

"W-w-w-what d-d-d-d-d-do you think-k-k-k?" the mage said through chattering teeth. Celtic laughed

"Come on Dark. Let's go home."

"Do you- ACHOO- even know where home _is_?" Dark asked, and sneezed again.

"Yeah, I do. Get up. We want to get out of the forest before dark." The elf wrestled his armor back on, and pulled his companion to his feet.

"ACHOO! How are you not cold? It's freezing out here."

"I was originally from the mountains to the north, remember?"

"What does that have to do with –ACHOO- anything?"

"I'm used to lower temperatures. You can keep the cloak 'till we get home."

"Thanks." Dark said, and sniffed.

"I think you're coming down with something, Dark" Celtic commented.

"No, I'm not. I never get sick. ACHOO!"

"Do you have a better explanation for why you're sneezin' so much?"

"No." Dark admitted.

"See! You _are_ getting sick!"

"I am-ACHOO- not!"

"Are to" 

"Am not!"

"Yes, you are."

"ACHOO! No, I'm not!"

"Yes, you are."

"NO I'M NOT!" Dark yelled.

"Jeez! Don't yell in my ear like that!" Celtic yelped. He shook his head, trying to get rid of the annoying ringing in his ears that had been caused by the mage's yell. His hair hit Dark right in the face, and the mage sneezed, then again, and a third time. Seven times in all, one after the other. Dark tripped and fell hard on his rear, frantically rubbing his watery eyes and cursing like a guardsman. Celtic laughed, and pulled the irritated male back to his feet. "We'll argue more later. Come on, let's get moving." Dark Magician nodded and leaned on the shorter male's shoulder. He sneezed, and then quickly smacked his hand over the Celtic Guardian's mouth before he could utter some annoying comment.

"Not one word elf, or I'll drop you where you stand." He growled. Celtic laughed.

"In your condition? Very well Dark, I'll shut up."

"Good." They walked on in companionable silence, broken only by Dark's sneezes. It was quite dark by the time they reached Celtic's home, and was snowing hard. It took some doing, but the elf managed to convince his friend to stay with him that night, as he was half-frozen and, since he couldn't find his way home in such weather anyway, staying there was a good idea. Despite Celtic's offer of his bed, the mage decided to sleep on the couch in the living room.

/Morning/ Cold wintery light filtered into Celtic's room, heralding the arrival of a pristine morning. "Hey! Dark! We got over three feet of new snow last night!" An extremely hyper Celtic Guardian bounced into the living room from outside wearing a coating of snow from the waist down. He was greeted by a less than enthusiastic groan, followed closely by coughing. After brushing himself off and discarding his sodden boots, the curious elf headed for the kitchen. Ten minutes later, he emerged with two steaming mugs of hot tea. He carried both into the living room and set them down on the coffee table. Once he was sure that the tea was out of danger, should Dark attack when he was woken (the mage was known to punch or kick the living daylights out of anyone who woke him up), the elf approached cautiously and shook Dark's shoulder.

"Urg. Go 'way." He mumbled, and weakly waved Celtic away.

"Nope. Up."

"That reason isn't good enough." Dark argued, and sneezed.

"I've got hot tea for you." Celtic coaxed. It worked. Dark peeked out from underneath his blanket, saw the tea, and sat up. Celtic grinned and handed the mage a mug.

"Thanks." Dark said, sipping carefully at the hot liquid. He could taste the citrus in it, though he couldn't smell it. "Mmmm." He hummed appreciatively.

"Glad you like it. What d'you want for breakfast?" Dark groaned.

"I don't even want to _think_ about food."

"Do you really feel that bad?"

"Do you really want to know? I can arrange that." The mage reached for his staff, which was lying on the floor near Celtic Guardian's knees.

"Ack! No, I believe you!" the elf said quickly, pulling the staff out of reach.

"Good. I don't think I could cast a proper spell right now if my life depended on it." Dark muttered, and pulled his knees up to his chest, holding the teacup close for extra warmth.

"Do you want me to get a fire going?" Celtic asked. The mage nodded, so the elf did.

"Do you realize that your shirt is completely soaked?"

"It is? I hadn't noticed." Celtic stood up and stripped his shirt off, hanging it on a hook close to the fire.

"You're to weird for words, you know that?" Dark said, and sneezed. Celtic Guardian laughed. Dark Magician ignored him, mainly because he was admiring Celtic's chest.

"Whatever. As soon as the pond thaws, I'm going to teach you to swim. I don't want you to drown someday when I'm not around to haul you out of the water."

"Fine, but _only_ if you come over here and keep me warm." The elf looked oddly at his friend, then shrugged and went back to the couch.

"Move your feet." He ordered. Dark obeyed, tucking his legs neatly underneath his body. This action made the blanket slide down to reveal that he too was shirtless. Celtic Guardian slipped underneath said blanket and picked up his own tea.

"Why did you pick this, of all things, for me to do as a bribe to get you to learn to swim?"

"Because. The only other thing I could've asked for would have been you." The mage said, leaning slightly into his friend. Celtic Guardian blushed. The thought that his best friend and crush felt the same way about him was to good to be true.

"Dark? What do you think about…um…guys who like other guys?" The Dark Magician looked surprised.

" As far as I'm concerned, if that's how they want to be, then it's their decision."

"What if…er…one of your friends…um…if they…well…liked you more than a…than a friend…and they were too shy to tell you?"

"Would that person happen to be you?" Dark said coolly, managing to hide his excitement.

"Uh…yeah. Mmph!" Celtic had just enough time to answer this question before Dark's lips were pressed to his.

"I've been hoping the same thing for a while." Dark murmured before sucking on the elf's neck. Satisfied by both the mark he left and the fact that Celtic needed another kiss, he did exactly that. This one was completely open-mouthed.

"I really hope whatever you've got isn't contagious, or I'll expect you to be nice when I get sick."

"Mmhm. Whatever you say Celtic." Dark said, and both turned their attention completely to the subject of the other.


End file.
